The invention relates to a vehicle seat. Disclosed herein are embodiments of a vehicle seat capable of moving a seat back or a seat cushion from a seated position to a pull-down position or a flip-up position (a folded position) by remote control.
Conventionally, there is a known a vehicle seat capable of enlarging a load chamber space provided on the rear side of a rear seat by pulling down a seat back of the rear seat or flipping up a seat cushion to move the seat to a predetermined position. For example, Japanese Patent Document No. 2002-079860 (“the '860 Patent Document”) discloses a technique in which a seat back of a rear seat is pulled down by operating a remote control portion provided on the rear end side of a load chamber portion, to enlarge a load chamber space (refer to the '860 Patent Document). According to this technique, at the time of enlarging the load chamber space, without directly operating an operation portion provided in a vehicle seat, a seat back can be pulled down by remote control. Thus, the load chamber space can be easily and promptly enlarged.
In recent years, among such vehicle seats, there is a widely known vehicle seat including an armrest pivotably supported on a seat back, the armrest being movable in the front and rear direction between a use position and a stowed position (refer to Japanese Patent Document No. 2006-271643 (“the '643 Patent Document”)).
The stowing technique of the vehicle seat described in the '860 Patent Document can also be applied to the vehicle seat including the armrest described in the '643 Patent Document.
However, in such a case, when the seat back is pulled down by operating the remote control portion while the armrest remains at the use position, the armrest is firstly brought into contact with the seat cushion of the vehicle seat. Thus, a situation that the seat back is stopped before reaching a proper pull-down position is caused. In such a case, in order to move the seat back to the proper pull-down position, a passenger has to move the armrest to the stowed position, and there is a problem that an enlargement task of the load chamber space is extremely troublesome.
As described above, when the armrest is brought into contact with the seat cushion, there is a disadvantage that the armrest is deformed due to impact thereof. Further, there are often cases where a cup holder, a housing box, and the like are attached to the armrest. When the seat back is operated in a state in which a drink or the like is disposed, there is also a disadvantage that the drink is sandwiched between the armrest and the seat back and spilled. Even in a type of vehicle seat capable of enlarging a load chamber space by flipping up a seat cushion, similar disadvantages are caused.